Which one to offer as a gift?

alaios

Hi all,
these are some shots for a friends couple of their little son. I want to offer them one as a gift (a good print actually).

I liked the results, since I did not ask from anyone to pose or stop what they were doing. I have picked few that I like the most and I applied a first round pp. Could you please help me some candidates for the second round of pp?

I would like to thank you for your feedback.

Regards
Alex


#1


#2


#3


#4


#5

Hackbone

I really like 1-2 & 5. I like shots of my children laughing and having fun so #2 &5 especially. Love the colors.

Seefutlung

#2

That non-posed look is very very nice. Or you can make a montage/collage.

jasonscottphoto

#1 and 4

jmphotocraft

1 and/or 4, but cropped tighter.

alaios

Hi,
I picked the #2.. (As always the more I look the more I change my mind...)
and I tried to do a bit of pp.. actually I opened the crop a bit but I am not sure if this make the shot more "imbalanced"

Before



After

Seefutlung

Cropping below the elbow helps a bit with the balance ... but, at the end on the day, this is a wonderful and expressive shot of your friend's son. That is the most important thing (screw the balance).

alaios

Thanks, we agree on that.
Thanks for putting me on right track
Regards
Alex

Qarik

I guess I would go with 4 but none of them are "print worthy" to me. To me print worthy mean you GOT the shot! All of these are not wide enough for me (something is clipped..arm, leg, foot, etc) I love the colors and expressions though. Do you have the ability to control your aperture? The other thing is the backgrounds are too "in focus" as well for me.

alaios

Qarik wrote: »

I guess I would go with 4 but none of them are "print worthy" to me. To me print worthy mean you GOT the shot! All of these are not wide enough for me (something is clipped..arm, leg, foot, etc) I love the colors and expressions though. Do you have the ability to control your aperture? The other thing is the backgrounds are too "in focus" as well for me.

Hi,
thanks for your comments... I see your comment but for me is always puzzling when cropping is allowed and when is not.
If I understand it right some photographers claim that you can crop if something is implied and at the same time does not look amputated.

I was looking the other time on this video (well known photographer and perhaps one of the most expensive for headshots)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIMCFVlbEz8

that he was cropping the upper part of the head by saying that everyone knows that the missing part is there.

Since I will be keep posting to this forum since is one of the few places I can have feedback this discussion would come back again over and over.

For the aperture question yes I can control it.. and this was the more open I could do... These where shots from my small jacket pocket camera that I always have with me (but then this is a cropped sensor with not very shallow depth of field).

Thanks for the feedback everyone
Alex